Fedora Core 4 Just made it through

[iGuest 3]

After doing a complete backup of Fedora Core 3, I thought it was time to try Fedora Core 4 out.

You wouldn't believe the hassle I had with it, but nothing I couldn't overcome, but I would hate to see someone fall into that very same pit as it's definitely not an easy task, so I'll just outline what I did if anyone does fall into this.

My system specifications for this:

Dual CPU PIII 1GHz
2GB SDRAM
2 Hard Drives @ 200MB
4 CDROM Devices (DVD Writer, CD ReWriter, DVD ROM and CD ROM)
ViewSonic 19" Monitor
PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard
SBLive with 5.1 Speakers

This setup already had Windows XP Pro SP2 installed but was using Grub from the Fedora Core 3 installation.

So the first thing I wanted to do was completely remove Fedora Core 3, including Grub from the MBR.

I booted into Windows XP under an Administrator account, went into Computer Management found inside your Administration Tools and then Disk Management and removed all Linux Partitions which could be found on the second hard drive.

I then rebooted XP with my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 CD, which I also slipped in my RAID drivers since I don't give my floppy drive any action anymore. Once I was presented with the screen to Repair my Windows installation, I choose that by pressing R and entering the Recovery Console (not the Automated Recovery F2).

From there, I issued the command: FIXMBR which replaced Grub with the Windows MBR (NTLoader).

I then exited out of Console, placed Fedora Core 4 into the drive and began installation.

So installation went a breeze, nothing out of the ordinary from here. I removed the DVD and rebooted the system. Now all I had to wait for was to see Grub in action. Yep,

Grub in action...

There seemed to have been a problem with Grub being able to run, it overwrote Windows MBR definitely but confronted me with just a Grub> prompt, definitely not what I wanted to encounter, so if you encounter this problem what would you do?

Panic, run for the hills, try and boot into Windows? (remember MBR is overwritten so you'd need to redo the above FIXMBR method)

Well, first we needed to know why this was happening yet how can you know, so second was assumptions... which you should never completely rely on but in this case, I had nothing else to go on, so I thought lets reload Grub, might have been a corrupted installation:

At the Grub prompt

> root (hd1,0)
> setup (hd0)
> reboot

How did I know root was (hd1,0)?

Well we could issue the command

> find /grub/stage1
or
> find /boot/grub/stage1

and if it gets found it will show you it as (hd?,?) where ? can be position/partition respectively. Remember there's no spaces allowed in (hd?,?) so keep it tight.

or if you already knew your drive position and partitions where you created /boot you could just enter that, like I did.

So after I rebooted, Grub was configured correctly and the menu listed all my Operating Systems, booted into Fedora Core 4smp (for dual processors) was confronted with firstboot, and that setup went a breeze too.

So now for my thoughts on Fedora Core 4, coming from I never trialled any of the Test Releases.

First impressions last, although could have been my fault, I think if people fall into that pit, they won't get out easily as I did.

Text-based Wise - Well, this hasn't changed dramatically, and that's alright, this isn't meant to be too flash and seems to have remained consistent throughout, so no point reviewing this part, as it's still the same ol' goodness.

GUI-based, The new theme looks smoother, a few additions in the taskbar and maybe a more strategically well thought out placement for items, may cause a little confusion for users of previous Fedora, but I think it's better laid out now, although what I would like to see is more Sub-Directories with their applications, e.g. Games, should be categorised for their type e.g. Arcade, Boards, Cards, etc. Never liked the Default Desktop image, so that was one of the first changes I did.

That's just one example, but this has been like this throughout Fedora, so it's nothing new, but I just don't like long lists of programs.

Now what is left is setting up your preferences, restoring your backup files back to your system and just enjoying this recently released OS, still room for improvement but I've been a loyal user to Red Hat/Fedora even though there are other distributions that do tempt me to switch I just don't want to give up on Fedora.

I recommand visiting http://www.fedorafaq.org/ for many guidelines and techniques and just more information to learn about Fedora.

Cheers,


MC

[jipman 0]

Do you want to know what I do when I encounter the GRUB prompt? I reinstall FC4.. .....Anyway, http://www.fedoranews.org/ is a very nice site with a lot of tutorials , like enabling mp3 support (at least it had one for FC3), configuring YUM.

[jedipi 0]

I installed winxp and Fedora core 4 in a same machine as well.
Windwos XP with SP2 is installed and run well.

My system specifications:
Intel CPU P4 2.4GHz
1GB DDR RAM
3 Hard Drives @ 80MB
2 CDROM Devices
LG 17" Monitor
PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard
SBLive with 5.1 Speakers

Steps to install FC4:

1. download the iso file：FC4-i386-DVD.iso from fedore website
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
and save it to a fat32 or ext3 disk volum. I don't think it is a good idea to save it on a NTFS disk.

2. Use WinRAR to open the ISO and extract the isolinux directory to somewhere (eg: C:\）

3. download: Grub For Dos :
http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/

uncompress it to C:\ ,
then edit the boot.ini file, add to following line to the end:

C:\grldr="GRUB For Dos/Windows "

It will look like this:

[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectC:\grldr="GRUB For Dos/Windows "

3. edit C:\boot\grub\menu.lst, and add the folling lines:

title Install-Fedora Core 4kernel (hd0,0)/isolinux/vmlinuzinitrd (hd0,0)/isolinux/initrd.img

4. reboot my pc and chose GRUB For Dos/Windows > Install-Fedora Core 4 in boot menu.

5 then follow the step to install Fedora core 4 from hard disk.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

jedipi... NOW I love you LOL.... That's what I needed to know, sadly it comes a bit too late really. I'll be getting a new comp with DVD writer, so I might as well download and burn on DVD But nonetheless, it's handy to know. I at one point even asked the FC3 guys on IRC OF Fedora ... and they didn't know...Well, I definately am trying FC4, I've always been with Red Hat even though I have Ubuntu on disc as well. I tried it, and prefer FC3. I don't see how new computer will change that. However, Qwijibow said loads of nice and good things about Gentoo, so I am definately trying that one as well. Besides, what's there NOT to try in Linux? I never understood why so many are scared to try Linux, I had very little computer experience, yet I stayed in Linux for over 3 yrs. With no issues.. Yes, I had the occasional reinstall to fully upgrade the OS with a newer version (which at that point for me was Red Hat 7.1 to 7.3 to 8)

[madcrow 0]

I don't see why FC4 would be so hard to get up and running. Any good install routine should enable you to dual boot and set up that menu...

[loganbest 0]

Yea, My install of FC4 on 2 different computers was EXTREMELY easy, although I am a "computer geek" my 12yr old brother (who is a complete idiot) watched and even thought it was easy! And of course there are no problems with my linux nor will there ever be, cuz Linux ROCKS!!!!

[madcrow 0]

heh. SuSE all the way for me. All these fancy new distros come out and I don't care. I'm a creature of habit and I like the huge amount of stuff that comes with it, cuz I only have 56k...